How much should you spend on a gaming PC?

Exactly how much do you need to spend on a gaming PC to get a build that’s worth your time? Well, that depends on if you plan to use your new PC for anything other than basic stuff & gaming, and roughly how good you want those games to actually look.

Some people will be fine with spending $500 on a budget build, but others might have to spend upwards of $1000-$1500+ to meet their expectations or requirements. It’s all about what you need and the kind of experience you’re aiming for. At the end of the day, as long as you have all of the 10 things you need to build your own computer, you’ll be fine.

One thing to keep in mind is that I’m not considering the price of an operating system, monitor, keyboard, mouse or audio. If you don’t have any of these things (most people won’t have a copy of Windows laying around for instance), expect to add roughly $300-$350 to the cost of your build, at least. Roughly $100 for your OS, another $150+ for a decent monitor, $50+ for a keyboard/mouse and then another $50+ for either a headset or speakers.

That’s just the low end of peripherals. On the high end, you could easily spend $500 on a monitor, ~$80 on a mouse, $100 on a keyboard and another $100 on a headset.

Near the bottom of the post I’ll talk more about how to effectively balance your budget to get the most out of what you’re working with.

Budget Builds

Some of us really only need a cheap gaming PC capable of playing esports titles like CS:GO flawlessly and also allowing for some playable AAA gaming. To me, a “budget” build is anything that falls in the sub $600 bracket and generally includes an i3/R3 processor or equivalent, a 2-4GB graphics card and 8GB of DDR4 RAM.

These types of builds are perfect if you play lots of indie games that aren’t very hardware intensive, or if you’re big into competitive shooters like CS:GO/Overwatch, or MOBAs like League of Legends.

Generally speaking, a build at the budget level should be something that you can expand on with future upgrades, things like your processor, graphics card, and storage should all be upgradeable. As far as my builds go, something like my $500 build will easily last a couple of years before “needing” an upgrade, but when it does come time everything and anything can be upgraded.

Keep in mind that builds at this level aren’t completely geared for graphically intensive AAA games like The Witcher 3; they will play them for sure, but the experience isn’t going to blow your console away by any means.

The following is a benchmark for a dated version of my $500 budget build. Everything was tested in 1080p on ultra settings for consistency and comparison against higher builds – chances are you won’t be using ultra settings in most of these games, so it’s worth noting that lower settings will dramatically increase frame rates in a lot of titles.

As you can see, in AAA titles like The Witcher 3 and GTA:V, this budget build isn’t really up to the task of ultra settings, but in games like CS:GO and Overwatch there’s not an issue hitting well over 60fps. At the end of the day, anything over 60fps is going to translate into smooth gameplay.

Mid-range builds – This is probably you

Most of us want a solid mid-range gaming PC build, something capable of playing basically anything on high settings or better in 1080p 60fps. But, what exactly does that mid-range build look like, how much is it going to cost, and what kind of performance will we get?

For starters, everyone’s going to have a different definition of what “mid-range” might be, but as far as I’m concerned, mid-range is around $700-$1000 USD. With that said, the best build will always be the one you customize for your own needs.

If you’re looking at mid-range builds, you should be getting an AMD R5 or R3 CPU (no, you don’t need an i7 or R7 in most cases), at least 8GB of DDR4 RAM, and a solid 3-6GB graphics card (GTX 1060 / RX 580, etc). You’ll also need a good ~400-550W power supply, motherboard, storage and of course a case.

A build like this would be great for 1080p 60fps gaming. Depending on the exact setup you choose, you’ll be getting 60fps or more in AAA games on high settings or better. Games like CS: GO will perform way better than a cheap gaming PC and you’ll be getting more like 200-250fps, again depending on your final system specs.

High-end builds

If you’re the kind of person who expects the best performance in all scenarios possible, or you want to overclock the crap out of your PC, then you’re going to have to spend a little more to get a lot more.

Starting at around $1000, you can get top-level 1080p/mid-level 1440p performance and have the ability to run literally any AAA game maxed out in 60fps or more, plus have the ability to do some decent overclocking. Looking for even better performance, or to jump into 1440p? Then $1200-$1500 should get you set up perfectly with an i7/R7 and at least a GTX 1070 graphics card or better.

Or, if you wanted to be really overzealous, for around $2500 you can build a complete behemoth running 2x GTX 1080 in SLI, an i7 8700K, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, over 2TB of storage and liquid cooling for your processor! But,

That being said, and in all honesty, this $2000 4K-ready build is better unless you absolutely need the power of two GTX 1080 in SLI. Not because it has more raw power, but because it has a stronger single card (GTX 1080 Ti) and will perform better in games that don’t work well with SLI.

Most people really don’t need a build like this, but it’s always nice to be able to run absolutely anything you want how you want to, without dropping frames. Basically, if you’re spending this much it’s probably because you thoroughly enjoy gaming on the highest settings and can’t stand anything less, right?

Budget Management – Very important

With everything we’ve discussed in mind, let’s talk about budget management before we completely finish this post off.

To do that, let’s use an example of someone with an $800 budget to spend on their PC.

With that $800, this hypothetical person has to buy everything they need; including a mouse, keyboard, monitor, audio, a copy of Windows, and of course the tower.

At PC Game Haven, and a lot of the other websites like us, you’ll find that our builds are laid out in such a way as to call an $800 tower an $800 build – and it is an $800 build. But, that being said, a “build” is just part of the equation, you still need to factor in the cost of any peripherals (mouse, keyboard, etc) that you don’t already have.

Back to our hypothetical person, let’s call him Joe. Joe wants to build a PC capable of 1080p gaming in AAA games; using his expert buying senses, Joe realizes that he also has to factor in the price of everything else that he needs for his build before blowing his whole budget on just his tower. Since Joe needs everything, mouse, keyboard, monitor, and some audio, he makes a rough sum of about $300 that he’ll have to set aside from his budget for these parts.

That leaves Joe with only $500 for his tower.

Since Joe is smart, he was able to determine that his whole $800 budget couldn’t be spent entirely on his tower. Since he still wanted the same level of desktop as before, Joe decided to wait it out and save up the money he needed for his peripherals instead of compromising and buying a cheaper PC. In the end, Joe ended up with an awesome gaming PC and some great peripherals to go with it.

On the other hand, we have Bob. Bob didn’t take the time to read or think and spent his entire budget on his tower. It wasn’t until after that he realized he had no keyboard, no monitor, no mouse and no headset. Now, Bob is saltier than the Dead Sea because he’s unable to use his new desktop until he’s saved up enough money (…again…) to buy the peripherals that he needs. Not ideal.

Be Joe, not Bob. (no offense to anyone named Bob out there)

Conclusion

By now, I hope that I’ve been able to give you some kind of rough idea about how much you should be spending on your gaming PC to get the gameplay experience that you want. Just don’t forget to factor in the price of the extra peripherals you might need. Since picking the right monitor is so crucial to getting a good experience, I’ve put together a guide on how to pick the best monitor for gaming.

You don’t necessarily have to spend insane amounts of money to get great performance, and you can easily beat what a console offers for not very much more than the average cost of a PS4 Pro. Just stay away from those cheaper prefabricated builds because they usually suck.

Under $600 = Budget level builds. Good for esports and lower quality gaming.

$700-$1000 = pretty much what everyone needs. Perfect to game in 1080p @ 60fps

$1000-$1500 = Enthusiast-level builds. These are best suited for 1440p-4K gaming

$2000+ = The upper echelon of computer building. This is reserved for 4K+ gaming and bragging rights.

Have a question? Ask it in the comment section below!

How much should you spend on a gaming PC? was last modified: July 16th, 2018 by Branton

About the Author

Branton

Hey there! I'm Branton, the founder and lead editor here at PC Game Haven. Since our launch in 2015, we've helped thousands upon thousands of gamers build their dream desktops, find the perfect peripherals, and more. Thanks for stopping by!

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Guest

Jimmy

Right thinking of making a PC so i can run emulators like CEMU but i also want to be able to play games in higher resolution than my xbox one and i just want to know is it possible to use my 4k tv as a monitor? I’m willing to spend 1500 to 2000 canadian dollars.

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November 24, 2018 10:51 am

Guest

Sachin Tyagi

Hello there i m looking for a pc to run x plane or FSX can u suggest the built i dont want to overspend but want to buy what is needed to run them good if not best. Any help will be appreciated bro.

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October 14, 2018 8:34 am

Author

Branton

Hey Sachin,

Flight sims are super demanding to run. You’ll need a very powerful PC, something in the $1500-$2000 range if you want to run the best settings and get top performance.

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October 18, 2018 10:56 am

Guest

SACHIN

Thanks for the suggestion bro any recommendations plz

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October 19, 2018 4:37 am

Author

Branton

You’ll want a build running a new i7 processor (or an AMD equivalent), 16GB of RAM, and a GTX 1080 or better. You’ll also want a fast SSD for your flight sims since they can be quite demanding in terms of reading data.

Something like my $2000 build would be an extreme example of a high-power build that would work well for flight sims.

Hope that helps!

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October 20, 2018 8:37 am

Guest

SACHIN

That’s really helpful thanks a lot bro

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October 21, 2018 8:53 am

Guest

Dungeon

I just spent 1k9 (shipping included, free OS from company) for a 1070Ti i7-8700 build after one month looking everywhere picking cheapest stuff possible. Building a PC in Asia is a nightmare, just the shipping fee alone boosted the price by 20%. But now I can enjoy GTA V with shit tons of mods at 1080p144

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September 28, 2018 2:09 pm

Guest

Anonymous

I would like to know at what price should a pc be able to play all the new games that are coming out

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September 8, 2018 3:55 pm

Author

Branton

That really depends on your other requirements, like what resolution you want, what settings you expect, what frame rate you want, and things like that. Otherwise, I generally suggest $700-$800 as a good starting point for “maxed out” 1080p gaming. Then $900-$1200 for 1440p and $1300-$1500+ for 4K.

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September 10, 2018 5:19 pm

Guest

lewis

HI what type of build would be best for a game like war thunder, to run on medium settings or higher, my computer which is low spec struggles to run it and sometimes will only average 18 to 25 FPS sometime 30 on certain maps and vehicles and such, im not all that bothered about budget, but i would like to be able to play some AAA games aswell!

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July 20, 2018 3:53 pm

Guest

lewis

i would also like some help on how to put together a PC since my exerience with building one is mostly minor modifications like adding graphic cards and ram cards and the like which has helped my cheap PC a bit

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July 20, 2018 3:56 pm

Author

Branton

Hey Lewis,

Pretty much anything from my cheap $500 build and up is going to dramatically improve your experience in games like War Thunder – 60fps on mid settings shouldn’t be an issue for that build. But, if you also want to dabble in some more demanding AAA games, I’d suggest taking a look at my $800 build as it’s capable of easily handling AAA games on high-ultra settings at 60fps+ without a problem.

Feels good being in the $2000+ area, (bragging rights is the only reason I spent that much) 😀

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June 18, 2018 8:00 am

Guest

Gage

Hello I’m new to the pc world and was looking into getting one. I would like to run games like fortnite r6s gta and call of duty in 60 FPS at least. Not to worried on wuiloty but would like it to run smooth. For the tower would like to stay in the 600-700 dollar range. Thanks in advanced

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June 9, 2018 9:15 pm

Guest

Gage

Wuiloty is suppose for to say what it would look like

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June 15, 2018 1:58 am

Guest

Gage

Wuiloty is supposed to say what it would look like.

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June 15, 2018 1:59 am

Author

Branton

Hey Gage,

Sorry I missed your earlier comment, my bad!!

I think my $600 build would be good for you, it would save you a bit to buy an OS and then you’d be able to game the way you want to.